Download Spring 2000

SPRING 2000 VOL. 41 NO. 1
THE SMILODON
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF GEOSCIENCES
Marine Microbial Biogeochemistry
Nitrogen (N2) is an inactive gas that makes up four-fifths of
the Earth’s atmosphere. Much smaller amounts of this element are essential components of every molecule of proteins
and other crucial parts of all living creatures. It has long been
known that certain plants (chiefly legumes) have on their roots
bacteria that are able to take nitrogen from air and convert it
to compounds that other plants can utilize, and nitrogen-fixing bacteria and cyanobacteria perform a similar role in the
ocean. Most of the “fixed” nitrogen (non-gaseous forms) in
the ocean is in the form of nitrate, which is present in high
concentrations in the deep sea. Professor Bess Ward and her
associates in Guyot Hall have dissected out the cycle of nitrogen in sea water and in lakes (Figure 1) using stable-isotope
tracer techniques and molecular biological analysis of microbial processes.
Geoscientists recognize that microbes control many important aspects of the geochemistry of the Earth’s surface. The
air we breathe contains enough oxygen to sustain higher life
forms due to the process of photosynthesis, which was “invented” by bacteria. At least half of all photosynthesis on
Earth occurs in the ocean, where it is performed by bacteria
and microscopic plants (phytoplankton) that float in the sur-
face layers. The inorganic nutrients required to support their
autotrophic photosynthetic lifestyle are regenerated by bacteria and by the tiny animals that feed on the bacteria and on the
phytoplankton. Bacteria and other microbes perform this essential mineralization and regeneration function in terrestrial
ecosystems as well. What are these tiny organisms that run
the world? How many species are there? The answers to these
seemingly simple questions are the goal of much environmental microbiological research today. Some of Ward’s research
addresses these questions, particularly in connection with the
microbes involved in the nitrogen cycle.
Nitrogen is the macronutrient most likely to limit the rate
and amount of organic matter production in the ocean, as well
as on land. Most of the transformations in the nitrogen cycle nitrogen fixation, denitrification, nitrification, ammonification,
even nitrogen assimilation - are predominantly controlled by
microbes in the ocean (Figure 2). Ward and her associates
conduct research on many components of the nitrogen cycle.
They seek to answer the questions: How fast do bacteria perform the important reactions of the nitrogen cycle? and What
is the identity and diversity of the bacteria responsible for these
transformations?
Figure 1. Preparing to lower
water sampler into a hole in the ice
at Lake Vanda, East Antarctica.
Bess Ward is kneeling with John
Priscu, Montana State University at
Bozeman, assisting. Lake Vanda is
about 90 miles from McMurdo and
is in the Wright Valley - the next
one over from the Taylor Valley,
where Lake Bonney is located.
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Nitrification is the process whereby ammonia (released as a
degradation or excretion product by bacteria and higher organisms) is oxidized to nitrite and this nitrite is further oxidized to nitrate. It is performed by chemoautotrophic bacteria, autotrophic meaning self feeding. They fix carbon dioxide as their source of cellular carbon by pathways very similar
to those used by photosynthetic organisms. Chemo means
that they use a chemical energy source and the reducing power
of ammonia or nitrite, instead of the energy of light. Because
the surface layer of the ocean is largely depleted of nitrate
(due to assimilation by the plants of the sea, phytoplankton)
and the deep water everywhere in the ocean has high nitrate
concentrations, it was long assumed that nitrification occurred
in the deep water. Because nitrification does not change the
total inventory of biologically-available nitrogen in the ocean
(as nitrogen fixation does by turning nitrogen gas into ammonia, or denitrification does by turning nitrate into nitrogen gas),
it might seem that nitrification is of secondary importance in
understanding controls in primary production. These assumptions were made about the distribution and importance of nitrification before any direct measurements of nitrification rates
in the ocean had ever been made.
Nitrate, an important nutrient for phytoplankton, is often
considered to be the nutrient that limits their ability to grow,
because it is present in surface waters at concentrations below
the level necessary to support biomass production. The phytoplankton are constrained to live in the well-lit surface waters, and the nitrate is constrained to reside at depth by the
stable stratification of the ocean. If physical processes that
disturb the water column (mixing and diffusion) are the only
way the deep nitrate reservoir can become available to phytoplankton, then the rate of photosynthesis in vast expanses of
-3
the ocean is controlled solely by physics, and the nitrogen supply can be modeled as a function of turbulence, and such standard variables as density (temperature and salinity) gradients.
However, if nitrate is produced in the surface layer by nitrification, then such models are too simple and must underestimate the rate of primary production based on nitrogen supply.
By making the first extensive direct measurements of the
rate of nitrification as a function of depth in the ocean, Ward
showed that the rate of nitrification was, in fact, greatest near
the surface layer. Nitrifying bacteria are inhibited by bright
light, and so their activity is not high in the very top surface
waters. But near the bottom of the photic zone (the well-lit
region of the water column, usually 50 - 100 m thick), nitrification rates are maximal. Nitrate produced in this depth interval is available to phytoplankton and can support their entire nitrate demand at times. If we are to understand phytoplankton growth in nitrogen-limited regions of the ocean, it
matters not just how fast nitrate is produced, but where it is
produced. Control of primary production in the ocean is of
critical importance because phytoplankton produce much of
the oxygen that sustains modern ecosystems; and by the same
token, the production consumes important amounts of carbon
dioxide during photosynthesis. The incorporation of carbon
dioxide by phytoplankton may play a major role in controlling the CO2 inventory of the ocean, and thus the atmosphere.
One of the difficulties in studying bacteria and bacteriallymediated transformations in the ocean is our inability to identify and to culture most of the cells that can be seen by microscopy. For example, using epifluorescence microscopy, it is
possible to enumerate about a million bacterial cells per ml of
sea water or freshwater. But because the cells are so small
and have such a small range of morphological variability, it is
impossible to say how many of those cells are nitrifying bacteria, or any other type for that matter. Using molecular biological methods, Ward and her colleagues (Figure 3) have
developed various methods and probes for quantifying the distribution of individual species and functional groups of microorganisms in the nitrogen cycle. Nitrifying bacteria are
not very numerous, usually comprising much less than one
percent of the total population. But because their metabolism
requires that they process a vast amount of nitrogen for every
molecule of CO2 that they incorporate into cellular material,
their impact on the nitrogen cycle greatly exceeds their impact on the carbon cycle.
Karen Casciotti, a graduate student, is working on the biochemistry and physiology of nitrifying bacteria in relation to
their ability to produce nitrous oxide. Although nitrite is the
major product of the oxidation of ammonia, some nitrous oxide is also produced. Because nitrous oxide (N2O) is an important greenhouse gas and the ocean is a significant source
of N2O to the atmosphere, it is important to understand the
natural processes, such as nitrification, that may be involved
in its production.
Denitrification is one of Ward’s current projects involving
another important step in the nitrogen cycle. Although it sounds
like the opposite of nitrification, it’s not quite that straightforward. Denitrification usually begins with nitrate, and reduces
it to nitrite, then to nitric oxide and nitrous oxide, and then
finally to nitrogen gas. It is important in the nitrogen cycle
because once nitrogen is in the form of dinitrogen gas (N2), it
(nitrate ion)
-
2
(nitrite ion)
(nitric
oxide gas)
(nitrous
oxide gas)
(dinitrogen gas)
(ammonium ion)
+
4
Figure 2. Redox nitrogen cycle with processes labeled.
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is no longer available as a nutrient to any organisms except a
few bacteria which can fix it back into nutrient form. The key
enzyme in denitrification is nitrite reductase, which reduces
nitrite to nitric oxide. This is a key step because it changes the
nitrogen from a dissolved ion that can be used as a nutrient,
into a gas, which is largely unavailable as a nutrient. Darryl
Martino, a post doc in Ward’s lab, is researching the diversity and evolutionary history of the gene that encodes this
important enzyme in a wide variety of denitrifying bacteria.
Denitrification is performed by a diverse array of bacteria,
and they only perform this process when oxygen is not available. That is, they use these nitrogen compounds instead of
oxygen to support their respiration. Thus, denitrification usually occurs in stratified water columns, where the supply of
oxygen is limited. In such situations, oxygen concentration is
near zero and nitrate concentrations are reduced. If oxygen
were present, nitrate would accumulate due to nitrification (see
above). Depletion of nitrate is the telltale signal of denitrification.
There are three main regions in the oceans of the world where
denitrification occurs in the water column. Ward’s group has
worked in all of these areas: Eastern Tropical South Pacific
off Peru, Eastern Tropical North Pacific off Mexico, and the
Arabian Sea. Research Assistant Danielle Schmitt is analyzing hundreds of samples collected from these regions. Using
mass spectrometry, she obtains data on the rate of bacterial
nitrogen transformations in these regions.
Denitrification in the water column is much more common
in lakes than in the oceans. Many lakes are permanently or
seasonally stratified, such that mixing and contact with the
atmosphere is reduced. Denitrification frequently occurs in
the bottom waters of lakes. This includes many of the permanently ice-covered lakes found in the dry valleys of Antarctica (Figure 1). There is one lake there, however, which presents a puzzle. Lake Bonney, in the Taylor Valley, has two
lobes, each about 40 m deep, which are separated by a sill of
about 13 m depth. Both lobes are permanently stratified and
covered by about 4 m of ice; oxygen is present in the surface
waters right under the ice cover, but is absent from the deep
waters. In the west lobe of the lake, denitrification has occurred as would be expected in the absence of oxygen; there is
no nitrate in the deep water of the west lobe because it has
been consumed by denitrifying bacteria. In the east lobe, however, oxygen is depleted very much as in the west lobe, but
nitrate is present at very high concentrations. Apparently, denitrification does not occur in the east lobe.
The usual suspects for inhibition of denitrification - lack of
organic matter for food, too much oxygen, not enough nitrate
- do not appear to apply to the east lobe. Ward and research
assistant, Julie Granger, are working with colleagues from
the University of Maine to test the hypothesis that trace metals are somehow responsible for the lack of denitrification.
This could occur either through limitation of a required metal
or too much of a toxic metal. They are approaching this problem by performing growth experiments in the lab with denitrifying bacteria that were isolated from the lake, and by measuring denitrification in water samples collected from the lake.
They recently completed their first of two planned field seasons in Antarctica working on this project. There is almost
no information available on the requirements or tolerances of
bacteria for metals, so this work is expected to yield important results, even if the mystery of Lake Bonney denitrification is not solved immediately.
The processes which control the distribution and availability
of nitrogenous nutrients on land are much the same as those in
the ocean and in lakes. The same basic kinds of bacteriallycontrolled reactions convert dinitrogen gas to dissolved nitrogen nutrients and they also remove those nutrient forms by
denitrification. Understanding these processes may have implications for food production on land as well as in the ocean,
due to the global importance of nitrogen in limiting primary
production.
Figure 3. Bess Ward (right) in
the mass-spectrometer lab with
graduate student, Karen
Casciotti (left), and research
assistant, Danielle Schmitt
(middle).
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NEWS
<e-mail address>
A note from Ed Sammel *66 of San Jose saying he’s healthy,
hiking, playing tennis. etc.; and is a volunteer at a downtown
San Jose urban ministry.
The following is abstracted from the February 21st issue of
Crain’s Chicago Business:
“In 1966, when Pure Oil Co. in Chicago was acquired by Union
Oil Co., John H. (Bud) Harmon, Jr. ’32, might have been
excused for disappearing into early retirement. The director
of purchasing was 56 at the time. Instead, he launched a new
career as a stockbroker with an upstart LaSalle Street firm,
Chicago Corp...... (which was) subsumed a few years ago into
ABN AMRO Inc., but 90-year old Bud Harmon ..... is still
sitting at the same desk each day, selling stocks and managing
accounts for a coterie of clients, mostly retired and living on
the North Shore.”
Two years ago Atsushi Kuroiwa *67 retired from Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. He works along with his wife,
Mihoko, as president of the Arts Project, Ltd.
After 15 years as an exploration manager with Amoco, Jeff
Arbogast ’70 co-founded Petroleum Software Technologies
in 1997. Located in Denver, the company designs and markets high-tech software for the oil and gas industry.
<[email protected]>
Having received his MSc in geology at the University of
Toronto in 1972, Gordon Stollery ’70 worked in mining exploration in Canada. From 1978 - 1997 he developed Morrison
Petroleum Ltd., sold the company; and after a little golf, started
a new oil and gas exploration company this year in Calgary. A
major investor is Andy Krusen ’70.
Stephen Steinhauser ’42 has been retired from active geology since 1976 when the United Nations Development Program threatened to move him to an administrative job. Ever
since he’s been working as an entomological taxonomist. He
happily reminisced about a field trip in 1940 with Shel Judson
’40 and Steve Fox ’33 *39 in the vicinity of the Grand Canyon. <[email protected]>
For 13 years Paula Kakimoto ’81 Lau has been working at
Stanford University in the real estate group of the Stanford
Management Co., dealing with soil and ground water contamination on leased lands. She is also a “hard hat” construction
manager. <[email protected]>
The career that Heyward Wharton ’43 failed to mention last
time was in economic geology. He was with New Jersey Zinc
and Union Carbide exploring for minerals; and then worked
for the Missouri Geological Survey.
After graduating from Princeton Paul Bauman ’81 went to
the University of Waterloo, Ontario, for graduate studies in
hydrology, and then into geophysical exploration in many
countries. Since 1990 he has been associated with Komex
International Ltd., in Calgary, managing the near-surface geophysics group. This spring, he returned to Guyot to give a
talk on “Geophysics Comes of Age in the Oil Sands Development.” <[email protected]>
Dick Holland ’46, Faculty 1950-72, is retiring this spring from
Harvard University’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. He’s being honored at a symposium May 26-28 in Cambridge. Among the session chairs are Robert O. Rye *65 and
James I. Drever *68. For more information contact Mrs.
Debra Crowley via fax (617-496-4387) or by e-mail
<[email protected]>
Chris Shade ’81 is still in personnel with Schlumberger, but
is now based in Dubai.
In 1994 John Whetten ’57 *62 retired from Los Alamos National Laboratory as an associate director and is now working
part-time for Motorola. The rest of his time he and his wife
watch the whales and the eagles from their abode on Lopez
Island, Washington. <[email protected]>
Two years ago James Kellogg *81 took over as the new Editor in Chief of the Journal of South American Earth Sciences.
He thinks it serves a real need for scientists working in South
America. <[email protected]>
Steve Bergman *82 returned to Guyot to give a seminar on
“When continents collide: Cenozoic and Mesozoic magmatism
and thermal history of southeast Asia.” Since leaving Princeton he has spent the last 19 years practicing the arts of hardrock petrology, geochronology, volcanology, and tectonics at
ARCO. Steve returned to Dallas in 1997 after a 13-month
ARCO-funded research sabbatical at the Bullard Labs at Cambridge University.
After 32 years Donald Laws ’57 retired from U. S. Steel - the
last 12 years as General Counsel. He and his wife are baseball
fans and travel over the country visiting friends and going to
the games. He is also working with children’s groups promoting an interest in geology. <[email protected]>
Allen Myers ’61 has been teaching marine science and geology in the University of Maine’s community college system,
most recently at Bangor Theological Seminary (“Rocks for
Frocks”). He lives on a contact between the Ellsworth Schist
(Precambrian) and the Point Granite (Devonian).
<[email protected]>
Last September Rick D’Angelo ’83 moved to Morristown,
NJ, where he has started a new career as an oil and gas analyst
for an investment management firm. Previously, he had been
with Amoco for 13 years. <[email protected]>
Steve Norton ’62 rejoined the full-time faculty at the University of Maine after serving as Chair of Geological Sciences
1994-99 (see Books.)
Phyllis Hasson *83 visited her son and family in St. Croix,
VI. Her e-mail is <[email protected]>
Mike Purucker *84 is the co-chair of a working group
on the Earth and Planetary Magnetic Survey of the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy.
<[email protected]>
Since the oil industry’s dive in 1985, Dick Bolander ’64 has
been working in the defense industry at Raytheon Electronic
Systems in Tewksbury, MA. He’s a principle engineer leading a distributed simulation software infrastructure project..
<[email protected]>
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Spring 2000
An article from Red Herring magazine about Kate Delhagen
’84 was sent by Anne Marie Lavigne ’98. Kate was the
former director of the electronic-commerce research department at Forrester Research, and the most quoted analyst. She
is now with Lucy.com, an online retailer of women’s active
wear. She’s vice president of strategic planning and business
development. Kate was a professional triathlete and an
Ironman finisher.
Brian Groody ’96 is still working for Schlumberger, but has
been promoted to Operations Manager of Wireline & Testing,
Formation Evaluation & MaxPro, in Victoria, TX. He said that
he is not able to play football anymore, but has taken up rugby
to vent aggression. <[email protected]>
After a career in geotechnical engineering, Andrea Volkmann
’88 Ramage is now in Seattle managing a small, but progressive effort to “green” a company of 8,000 employees. She
will be “pushing and pulling” the company towards greater
environmental responsibility. She writes, “For the first time
in my work life, I feel that I am contributing to a healthier
society.”
Christopher Neal ’98 is working for an environmental consulting company in Newton, MA. Three days a week he’s in
the Department of Environmental Affairs at Brigham and
Women’s Hospital in Boston and two days at Harvard’s Institutes of Medicine. <[email protected]>
After five years in the Washington, D. C., area, Mark Gleason
’88 has relocated in the Boston area. A senior engineer with
GeoSyntec Consultants, he is involved in waste management
and site rededication with a specialty in application of
geosynthetics in engineering and environmental applications.
<[email protected]>
After four years with Texaco Exploration, Chris Connors *99
is now an assistant professor at Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA. ([email protected]>
Andrea Borgia *88 from Arizona State University led a seminar in Guyot Hall just after Thanksgiving. He spoke on volcanic spreading. <[email protected]>
Evolution of the Cretaceous Ocean-Climate System, edited
by Enriqueta Barrera (Visiting Professor 1991-93) and C.
C. Johnson, 1999, Geological Society of America, (GSA), 446
pp., $87.00, member price $67.20.
Focuses on an integrated systems approach to understanding the Cretaceous greenhouse world.
At the moment Matthew Hoehler ’98 is working on a Masters of Engineering degree at Berkeley; then he’s heading back
to the world of the employed. <[email protected]>
Kevin Roberts ’99 is now living in South Charleston, WV.
BOOKS
After receiving his Ph.D. working with Frank Spera (Faculty 1977-85), Stephen Clark *88 returned to Britain to a
business career in the passenger railway industry in operations research. He lives in York, England, and says to “pass
along my address to anyone who may wish to visit.” (17 Mount
Parade, York, YO24 4AP, UK). He sometimes sees Roland
Hellmann *89 on the ski slopes and has seen Curtis
Oldenburg *84 and Roelof Snieder *84 this past year.
Classic Cordilleran Concepts: A View from California, edited by Eldridge Moores *63, D. Sloan and D. L. Stout, 1999,
Special Paper 338, GSA, 504 pp., $97.85, member price
$78.28.
Outlines some of the classic geologic concepts developed
from research in the Cordillera of Western North America in
the past century.
Roland Hellmann *89 is working in the Crustal Fluids Group,
CNSR, University of Grenoble, France. <[email protected]>
Faults and Subsurface Fluid Flow in the Shallow Crust, edited by W. E. Haneberg, P. S. Mozley, J. Casey Moore *71,
and L. B. Goodwin, AGU, 1999, Geophysical Monograph, vol.
13, 222 pp., $45.00.
Features extraordinary interdisciplinary research on fluid
flow in faults.
While still pursuing his Ph.D. in geology at Yale, Victor Sletten
’90 has started working as a software engineer for Novell, Inc.,
in Provo, UT. He received his MS in computer science.
<[email protected]>
After six years with Schlumberger in Texas, Argentina and
Venezuela, Dan Shea ’93 is a first-year student at Harvard
Business School.
The Bear Brook Watershed in Maine - A Paired Watershed
Experiment. The First Decade 1987-1997, edited by Stephen
A. Norton ’62 and I. J. Fernandez, 1999, Kivwer Academic
Publishers, the Netherlands, 250 pp., $96.00.
This research integrates studies of biogeochemical responses
of streams, soils and vegetation.
Ed Cervone ’94 is in Denver working at Freshies, a Princeton
alumni run company.
“I'm currently a second-year Ph.D. graduate student in the
Environmental Science, Policy, and Management Program
at the University of California, Berkeley,” writes Arielle
Lavine ’95. She reports that Laurie Gaskins ’95 is in the
Geology Department Ph.D. program at Berkeley.
<[email protected]>
The Lab Book: Problem Solving in Geology, by Sheldon
Judson ’40, William E. Bonini ’48, D. D. Rhodes, and Lisa
A. Rossbacher *83, 2000, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River,
NJ, 250 pp., 16 color plates, 2nd Edition, $25.00.
Designed as a stand-alone lab manual with any physical,
environmental, or engineering geology course. Based on principles of scientific inquiry that challenge students to think
beyond the activity at hand to the larger questions of applied
geologic work.
Rob Hepple ’95 recently finished working with Schlumberger
in Saudi Arabia, and is taking classes at Berkeley.
Charlie Brankman ’95 just finished a master's degree in geology at Stanford and is now working for a geological consulting company in the San Francisco Bay area.
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Spring 2000
reach Manager for the Princeton Earth Physics Project (PEPP)
working with K-12 teachers and scientists to help bring the
technology of seismometers to the classroom.
AROUND THE DEPARTMENT
A fond farewell to: Elaine Zampini, Senior Assistant in
the Geosciences Library, who is relocating and will join the
Mercer County Library System; to Mark Battle, who has
joined the faculty of Physics and Astronomy at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine; to our Departmental Secretary, Linda
Berez, who has moved to the other end of Guyot Hall in Molecular Biology; and to Melinda Matlack, Office Assistant,
who has joined the Office of the Dean of the Faculty.
For his first assignment as a post doc, Duane Moser plummeted two miles into the gold mine at East Driefontein near
Johannesburg, seeking microbes. He is working with Tullis
Onstott *81 Faculty, who has received a $3 million grant
from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NASA to
establish a permanent research station in a South African gold
mine.
Welcome to Daniel Steinberg, who came to us from the
Space Telescope Science Institute, where he worked as an Operations Astronomer for the Hubble Space Telescope. He received his Ph. D. from the State University of New York
(SUNY) at Binghamton, followed by three years as a National
Research Council post doc with the Geodynamics Branch at
Goddard Space Flight Center. Here he is the Education Out-
Cape Elizabeth is an oil on linen painting by the artist, James
Cook. It was donated to the department “In Honor of the Class
of 1973” by a member of that class. It is now in place in the
Map Room of the Geosciences Library.
NEW FACULTY JOIN DEPARTMENT
A molecular geochemist, Satish C. B. Myneni joined the
faculty as an assistant professor in September. He received his
undergraduate degree in geology and physics at Osmania University, Hyderabad, India, in 1985; his Master’s degree at the
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Kharagpur, India, in
1989; and his Ph.D. at Ohio State University in 1995. He was
a post-doctoral scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, and later became a staff scientist before
joining Princeton. His research focuses on the structure of
water; the chemical reactions occurring in aqueous solutions;
and the natural interfaces (mineral-water, air-water, organismwater interfaces) and how they influence the biogeochemical
processes in nature. In addition to the spectroscopic facilities
at Princeton, he uses the synchrotron X-ray sources at Stanford
and Berkeley to study these processes.
___________________
Daniel Sigman, a marine geochemist, joined the faculty as
an assistant professor in February. He received his bachelor’s
degree from Stanford University in 1991 and his Ph.D. in
oceanography in 1997 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program.
He came to Princeton Geosciences as a Harry Hess Postdoctoral
Fellow (1998-2000). Sigman studies the cycles of biologically-important elements and their interaction with changing
environmental conditions through Earth history. He focuses
on the oscillations between ice ages and interglacial periods
that have dominated Earth’s climate for the last two million
years. His analytical work currently centers on the use of natural, stable isotopes to track the marine nitrogen cycle of today
and in the past.
Satish Myneni
Daniel Sigman
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Spring 2000
HONORS
GEOSCIENCES 499
Congratulations to Jason Morgan *64, Faculty, who was
one of three awarded the Vetlesen Prize at a dinner in their
honor at Columbia University on January 24th, 2000. They
were recognized for their “scientific achievement for a clearer
understanding of the Earth, its history and its relation to the
universe.” In addition, Jason received an Alexander von
Humbolt Foundation Senior Fellowship, which provides support for study in Germany. For the spring term he will be at
the GEOMAR (Forschungsinstitut
fuer
marine
Geowissenschaften) Research Center for Marine Geosciences.
It is associated with Christian Albrechts University of Kiel.
He is working with his son, Jason Phipps Morgan, who is Director of the Marine Geodynamics Department and Professor
at the University.
Last year a new course, “Dealing with Natural Disasters,”
was added to the curriculum by Visiting Professor Gregory
van der Vink *83. It focused on how we can reduce our
nation’s liability due to natural disasters, such as killer tornadoes, floods, blizzards, hurricanes, etc. Creating a sense of
ownership among the students, they calculated the economic
impact and long-term consequences to the country.
Armed with their creative natural disaster scenarios, they
traveled to Washington and presented their findings and recommendations to policy advisors at the White House, the
National Science and Technology Council’s Subcommittee on
Natural Disaster Reduction, and to a Congressional subcommittee.
There are not more hurricanes and earthquakes causing more
harm to people, but more people building and living in harm’s
way. Federal aid and legislated insurance rates have made the
nation more vulnerable by subsidizing inappropriate land uses.
So strategies for dealing with these disasters depend on political concerns. People must be informed about the ways in
which irresponsible land use, such as building expensive
homes on beaches, creates long-term costs for taxpayers.
The students concluded that a nationwide database was
needed to gather information on disaster events, their costs,
and the geophysical data on which to base a future plan similar to the nationwide flood-insurance program. Their recommendations were accepted by Washington subcommittees for
inclusion in their publications.
At the 1999 American Association of Petroleum Geologist
(AAPG) meeting in San Antonio - a Distinguished Educator
Award was presented to Don L. Blackstone *36, who retired
from the University of Wyoming.
The National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT)
has presented the James H. Shea Award to John R. (Jack)
Horner, Assistant Curator 1975-83, in recognition of his exceptional written contributions in the Earth sciences of interest to the general public. Through print, TV, and movies, he
has made dinosaurs come to life for millions of people.
In additon, Jack Horner’s book, Digging Dinosaurs, published
in 1988, was selected by American Scientist magazine as one
of the 100 books that most influenced the scientific community during the past century. Congratulations, Jack, on both
achievements.
Katherine Cashman (Faculty 1986-91) is the Presidentelect of the Volcanology, Geochemistry, and Petrology Section of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).
DEATHS
William Gerald Ambrose ’44
March 10, 1999
Bruce Mark Bradway ’43
September 17, 1999
Alumni/ae Reception at Reunions
James Michael Curran, Jr. ’35
October 21, 1999
As usual
The Department will host a reception
for those returning for reunions.
Francis Louis Handy ’26
September 7, 1999
Thomas Henry Jones ’35
December 11, 1999
Friday, May 26
3:00 to 5:00 PM
In Guyot Hall
Arthur Montgomery ’31
December 31, 1999
In addition to an update on Department activities,
we want to show you some of the
“Innovations” in undergraduate laboratory work.
Willard Hall Parsons *36
November 8, 1999
Charles Arthur von Elm ’41
December 14, 1999
Come visit with the faculty and students.
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THE SMILODON
Published by
the Department of
Geosciences
with support from the
Association of Princeton Graduate
Alumnae/i
Princeton, New Jersey 08544-1003
Volume 41, Number 1
Spring 2000
Phone (609) 258-5807
Fax (609) 258-1274
Our Department is
always pleased to hear
from our Alumni/ae and Friends.
Write us your news or send e-mail to:
[email protected].
Peggy Cross, Editor
with help from
Bill Bonini ’48
and
Laurie Wanat,
Production Editor
Princeton University
Department of Geosciences
Princeton, New Jersey 08544-1003
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